Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Area Profile
12,463 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson County.
Fort Atkinson ranks in the top 15% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.0% and median household income of $79,302.
Residential permitting has slowed: 12 units authorized over the past twelve months, 87% below the prior year.
Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Fort Atkinson in the top 21% for physical resilience.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.0% is lower than 96% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment grew 0.2% over the past year, to 47,698 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$8,042 | $79,302 | Top 34%of 29,573 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$3,072 | $38,229 | Top 37%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 6.7% | Bottom 31%of 31,900 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 22.4 min | Bottom 28%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 26.2% | Top 37%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 47,698 | Bottom 49%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 0.0% | Top 48%of 3,903 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | 0.2% | Top 26%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 49,154 | Bottom 49%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 69.8% | Top 19%of 31,933 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 0.1% | Top 47%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.0% | Bottom 4%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Jefferson County, WI, which contains this city.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Median rent of $961 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 2.67 | Bottom 43%of 28,473 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 68.5% | Bottom 35%of 31,843 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±296 | 5,574 | Top 10%of 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$41 | $961 | Bottom 49%of 23,432 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$15,033 | $211,800 | Top 44%of 29,342 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 14.5% | Bottom 22%of 23,201 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 3.0% | Bottom 19%of 32,001 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated →An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 12,377 in 2024.
Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 11°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 35.5 inches, including 36.4 inches of snow.
Air quality measures a median index of 39, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 51.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 35.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 36.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 11°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 83°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 39.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 53°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and hail.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, strong wind, winter weather, landslide, ice storm, earthquake, wildfire, drought, hurricane.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Safety
How it’s measured →Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Fort Atkinson's police department reported 219 violent offences per 100,000 residents, near the middle of places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 422.
Jefferson County records 1.5 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 9.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 11.1 per 100,000 residents in Jefferson County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.
Offences are reported to the FBI by Fort Atkinson’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Jefferson County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Fort Atkinson rather than Fort Atkinson itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.
What this profile does not cover
Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.
- Taxes
- Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 29 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dane County Rgnl/Truax Fld | MSN | 29 mi | 9,006 ft |
| Wittman Rgnl | OSH | 75 mi | 8,002 ft |
| Chicago O'Hare Intl | ORD | 81 mi | 11,245 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
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Other cities in Watertown-Fort Atkinson, WI
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Watertown | Jefferson County | 22,774 | 71 | vs Fort Atkinson |
Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Fort Atkinson side by side with a similar place.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year | Annually, with monthly revisions |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, once a calendar year is complete |
Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.